CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The Lesley University men's tennis team opened the 2017 season falling to Becker College, 6-3, in New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) action Thursday evening. First year Evan Flaherty (Scituate, Mass.) earned his first victory of his collegiate tennis career with a two-set win in fifth singles.

Becker first doubles tandem out-battled a gritty, 14-set, performance by Lynx junior Niko Marcolini (Newbury, Mass.) and first year Patrick Corcoran (West Hartford, Conn.).  Senior Connor Allison (Hillsboro, Ore.) and first year Michael Caban (Lawrence, Mass.) knocked off the Lynx veteran and rookie with an 8-6 win in first doubles to take a 2-1 match lead.

The singles portion of the competition was where Flaherty shined. Flaherty held off Hawk first year Alex Kielczewski (Grand Prairie, Texas) with a 6-3 win in the first set before shutting out the native Texan, 6-0, in the second set. The south shore native was not the only Lynx first year to experience success on the courts.

After dropping the first set of second singles, first year Beowulf Urban (Blue Hills, Maine) evened up the match with a 6-4 win in the second set. But Allison was able to hold on and take the match with an 11-9 win in the third set.

First year Evan Zona (Hingham, Mass.) played solid against junior Thomas Lanphear (Manchester, Maine) while sophomore Throngpol Chinpanjapol (Barre, Mass.) led the way with a 6-1, 6-0 win in first singles.

Lesley drops to 0-1 on the season and 0-1 in NECC action while Becker improves to 1-0 and 1-0 in the conference. The Lynx return to the courts on Wednesday March 29th for an afternoon non-conference match against Curry College at 3:30 p.m.